British Museum Tours Patterns: Zigzags, Waves, Spirals, Quantum

The processing of information is the major function of most brains. Even a fly has enough brain power to know when it is about to get hit and get out of the way. In thinking about the steps required to do this and the small amount of brain it has, it is really quite astonishing.

Then if we move up to a predator like a lion its visual depth processing, its knowledge of its territory and the ebb and flow of the possibilities within its range, knowing where it stands in relationship to other lions, its tracking and the necessary predictive skills for fatal contact - all talk of a formidable amount of process capability.

Two million years ago we had all of this plus great acrobatic skills with a zest for life that wanted to celebrate its skills which we can still see in youngsters and their BMX bikes. Along this journey was added two explosive episodes of brain increase. All this begs the question what are our brains doing with all this extra resource?

Certainly awareness is a big part of the picture but awareness of what? Could part of the awareness be a semiconscious awareness of the ongoing subconscious mechanisms that the brain uses to do the tasks it needs to do? And with that semiconscious awareness were we able to be creative in our own right and as the very powerful Egyptian phrase says

"Like Ra gives life."

This is such a big area the problem is knowing where to start. So let’s just jump in.

This carving from the Living and the Dying gallery of the British Museum is not very old. Its declaration says to anyone that cares to look at it that we share this planet with other life forces and the skill is to find a harmony within the planet's allowance.

Then if we were to go up to the top of a cliff and look over the sea we would see our coast surrounded by patterns and this can cause a deep sense of well being. Could it be that the patterns we see are in some ways similar to processes going on within us, where information, feeling, memory are in a state of flow that eventually come lapping onto the shore of our consciousness?

There is a lot of pottery where the rims and bottoms have repetitive cycles of patterns. This also turns up in architecture where the tops of the walls just below the ceiling have repetitive patterning.

What would have been the effect of someone using this kind of pot or walking into a room with these patterns just under the ceiling? Could it have been a reminder that there is a place in themselves where chaos can be put into order and that they are safe now and can go to that stillness? Little reminders during the day that allowed them to touch once again the quietness of what they are.

If, as many cultures suggest, at higher states of consciousness, there are powered electromagnetic fields generated then it would suggest at there are functions within the brain that process internal and external signals as electromagnetic fields as distinct from electromagnetic data. For processing data digitally (as in "yes, no" or "on, off" ) we can look to computers to understand the basic ways it might work but, for processing electromagnetic fields, we would need to look to things like power supplies and valve technology and low energy plasma states.

This is a very important distinction because the best that digital technology can do is to create a model, whereas electromagnetic field processing opens the door to replication. It’s the difference between having a computer programme that can show how a seed grows and actually having a seed which you can plant and have it grow itself.

Could the beginnings of the creativity seen during the last 150,000 years be the starting point of trying to understand and get to grips with this new possibility? If so could the constant themes we see on pots and mats over the last 13,000 be an urging from the semiconscious that there was in these designs something that they needed to find. But not in the way of “Oh, I understand”, but more by getting to know the places in themselves where these designs could bring them consciously closer to the possibilities of electromagnetic field processing or to put it another way being able to have a mind to make up and brew inside of.

So with this in mind as a question let’s group some of these themes.

Zigzags hold the concept of cascades where force or energy does not go up or down in a straight line but steps down like a series of waterfalls or a bolt of lightening. So it is with most discoveries there is a rapid advance then a plateau is reached where there can be a filling out in terms of new applications and the getting ready for the next break through. With this comes the idea of the levels of things or band width or separation and, to go up or down, there needs to be a jump in octave.

Link to selection of Zigzag Patterns

Where there is no declension in the Zigzag the pattern begins to look more and more like a wave. The rhythms, the cycles, the repetitions, without these there would be no continuence, no renewal. Life is a continual dance to many tunes and, when the dancing stops, life ends. Nothing is outside this principle even mountains rise up and get worn away for other mountains to then rise up in their turn.

Link to selection of Wave like Patterns


When a wave gets too big as it comes into the shore it crashes itself to pieces. However there are situations where a wave can fold into itself, save its energy and reappear. It’s at the point when it’s about to make the next octave jump. It is a bit like squeezing wet soap it jumps out of the hand. At this point spirals become evident.

Link to selection of Spiral Patterns

With Electromagnetic waves the zigzag, the wave and the spiral morph one into another as the details of the wave is either zoomed into or zoomed out from.

So what about the power aspect of Electromagnetic waves?

This mat from North America shows the basic idea of a power supply quite well. The black is all the power that is available. Then only one frequency is selected and either the positive half or the negative half is allowed through. This is shown as a series of triangles with the black portion of the triangles showing the power that has been allowed through. Then, if it is power that is needed, the triangles are smoothed out to give direct current. However, if it's information that is wanted, then the power is reduced, until all that’s left is a thin black wavy line but, within the wave, is the information. As with most applications there is a mix of information and power required.




With the Zigzag it showed energy rising or falling with plateaus along the way.
 
 

This same idea can be shown as lines going around a pot thus, highlighting the quantum nature of the whole signal. In this example it is suggestive of three levels of experience possible within the event as a whole. If this is coupled with the idea of a power supply then, to get the full experience there would need to be different parts of the brain tapping into the three levels: 1) to get the power that those parts need to function and 2) to be able to access any information (or state) that might be within a particular level.
 
 
 

 
Then there are designs with circles on the pot or plate or jug. Could all three be the same idea shown in different ways?
 
 
 
 
 
Link to selection showing Quantum Zigzags
 
If this is so could the designs that run along the various levels be indicating the kind of power and or information that can exist at that level?
 
Link to selection showing Quantum Powered Zigzags
 
So taken as a whole are we seeing in these designs an exploration into the fact the life is a multi-level affair. We can all recognise a flower, and if we spend some time with it we can begin to get a feeling for it. But what of the living essence of a flower? Are there systems within us that could replicate the living essence? There is an old saying that if you know the name of something you can have its power. Perhaps the name of a rose is not actually “rose” but a spectrum of signals and once a person can assess the full range of those impressions, then they can get to the living truth of that actual rose.


In these times of "not enough time" we have forgotten the art of slowing down enough to let the higher systems within us have their time?

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Acknowledgements. Special thanks to The Mosaic Orchestra for letting me use some of their music
The World Mosaic of Sound